Speciality Sees Move Back to Quality Lights

First-time NBAA exhibitor Specialty Bulb Co. (Booth No. C12639) is small compared to most of its neighbors on the convention center floor, but its size belies its significance. While the Bohemia, N.Y. company, located across the street from MacArthur Airport on Long Island, has only 12 employees and just sells one product, lighting, it does this for everything from Cessna 152s to Airbus A320s and Boeing 747s, to a diverse range of customers from weekend pilots to major airlines.

The company has stayed in business for nearly 30 years by offering customers a high level of personal service, said sales manager Edie Muldoon. “Our customers don’t want to wade through 58 line items in a general-purpose catalog to find why they want,” she said.

Muldoon keeps in close contact with her clients, whether they are in Caldwell, N.J. or Dubai. About 40 percent of Specialty’s clients are international, she said, and they have discovered the company’s products mostly through word-of-mouth from peers in the industry. Following “a few rocky years,” Muldoon said Specialty’s business is increasing. Specialty focuses on selling established brands from quality suppliers such as GE, Philips, and Sylvania and is seeing increased interest in LED and HID lighting; however, its main products continue to be traditional incandescent bulbs.

Muldoon said she is seeing the industry return to quality brands after a rash of premature failures of cheap imports, some of which have resulted in aircraft fires. “We really are seeing a renewed focus on quality,” she said. “The market had been flooded with a lot of cheap bulbs from China.”